


Three Divided by Zero

by misura



Category: Superman Returns (2006)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-06-30
Packaged: 2017-11-26 02:31:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/645569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He doesn't quite taste Lois on Clark's lips but it's a close thing.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Divided by Zero

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _Clark/Richard, scent_

He doesn't quite taste Lois on Clark's lips but it's a close thing.

Less than a year ago, it would have annoyed him - pissed him off, even, bad enough to pick a fight, and never mind if the other guy's nickname is 'the Man of Steel'. Richard's never been afraid to jump into a fight he knows he's probably going to lose, because when you do it often enough, sometimes, you'll beat the odds and win. It's how he ended up engaged to Lois, when everybody except his uncle said he should save himself the trouble. (Uncle Perry just told him not to let it interfere with his work.)

It's also how he's ended up here, he thinks - 'here' meaning right outside his once-fiancee's bedroom, smelling her perfume on another man and kissing him instead of hitting him.

Clark gasps, and Richard spends one moment wondering if he's like this with Lois. He's seen them together - fully dressed, of course, and he always pictured Clark as someone soft and sweet and tender; too civilized for the kind of passion that leaves clothes torn and bodies slightly bruised and a little sore in a good way. Too alien for that kind of human emotion.

Right now, there doesn't seem anything particularly civilized or alien about Clark.

Clark's face is flushed and his eyes are slightly glazed, and if part of that reaction is a residue from where he's been before (and who with) then what of it? Richard and Lois are still engaged and raising a kid together, with a little bit of help from 'Uncle Clark' aka Superman.

A lot of help, sometimes, when it comes to talking to a seriously freaked out P.E. teacher who's just witnessed one of her students end up with a near concussion after she told him to 'get on up that rope already'. (In Jason's defense: he got up all right. All the way to the ceiling, except that he didn't actually use the rope to do it.)

One of these days, Richard's going to ask Clark to take him flying. He knows Clark does it for Lois, but he also knows he and Clark don't quite have the same sort of relationship as Lois and Clark - or him and Lois, for that matter.

Clark groans as Richard presses in closer, ignoring the small voice in the back of his mind that insists on pointing out that if Clark wanted to, he could shove Richard through the opposite wall without even working up a sweat. He knows Clark can do stuff like that, but he also knows Clark _won't_.

As far as turn-ons go, _not_ getting shoved through a wall might be sort of a weird one. Still, it works for Richard - more so than the red cape or tight costume, even if there's something to be said for those, too, sometimes. Especially the tight costume, for all that it's near-impossible to get Clark out of in a hurry, even with Clark's enthusiastic cooperation.

Frankly, Richard doesn't think he could pull off wearing something like that nearly as well. He's a shirt and pants man - a suit, when he's at work or needs to look extra respectable and/or mostly harmless.

Just because Richard isn't invulnerable and can't fly and hasn't got superstrength doesn't mean he's just going to sit twiddling his thumbs when he could be doing something that needs doing.

"Bedroom?" Clark pants, and Richard supposes that maybe he's got a point. Jason's far enough down the hall not to get woken up by any sounds, and Lois is probably sufficiently sound asleep by now that even a canon couldn't wake her, but even so.

Even so, Richard really doesn't feel like moving that far, not if it means letting go of Clark. "I'm good where I am." Clark's eyes flutter open. Richard flashes him a grin that's possibly slightly smug. "Just don't feel like wasting the time."

"I could - " Clark manages, before Richard leans in again. They usually don't talk a lot during this; there's just not that much that needs saying this very moment. Anything that needs talking about, they can talk about over breakfast, with Lois, tomorrow morning.

Clark still smells of her. Richard wonders if Clark smells her on him, too. A normal person wouldn't; they've hugged a few times, sure, kissed each other good morning earlier today, and goodbye, and welcome home, but it's not as if Lois is one of those women who walk around in a cloud of perfume.

Given that Clark's got super-hearing though, Richard doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't have super-smelling, too - except that most of the time, probably, it wouldn't be all that much fun.

He comes up for air, and Clark says: "Richard!" in a tone that makes it clear it's less an offer and more of a request bordering on a demand.

"Fine. Just leave the house standing." Richard knows Clark would never harm him or Lois or Jason or their home on purpose. By accident is a whole other ballgame. Superstrength isn't always the best thing to have when your self-control is getting a bit shaky - for all that it's a very satisfying process to get Clark there. "Use the door. By opening and closing it."

"I know what doors are for." Clark moves away from the wall, and for a moment, Richard feels just how much of an illusion it was to think he had Clark pressed up against a wall.

It's not a sensation he cares for, generally. No man likes to feel completely helpless - and no woman either, Richard doesn't think. Lois knows Clark loves her, which means that whenever she's with him, she's in control, superstrength or not.

With Richard and Clark, it's a bit more ... complicated.

They both love Lois, there's that, of course, but Richard's not sure what their relationship is outside of that. Colleagues, yes; friends, probably. People who have sex with one another, apparently.

For one brief moment, he can't breathe, feels the air rushing by as if he's in free fall. It would be even more unsettling if it hadn't been for Clark's arms, firmly holding him, Clark's body, solid against his own.

It's only a short trip. They might as easily have walked.

On the other hand, Richard's got a pretty good idea about what to do with those twenty seconds Clark's just saved them - especially now that they're out of the hallway.


End file.
